Elias Says...

NFL

HOUSTON'S DEFENSE HAS A PROBLEM

From Elias: The Texans, who lost to the Colts, 30-17, on Monday night, are the first team since the 1989 Cowboys to allow at least 24 points in each of their first seven games of a season. That team finished with a 1-15 record, in what was the first year for Jerry, Jimmy and Troy in Dallas.

NBA

Deng

DENG DOES COACH K PROUD

From Elias: Luol Deng scored a career-high 40 points in Chicago's win over Portland. He becomes the fifth Duke player from the Krzyzewski era to score at least 40 points in one NBA game. The others were Gene Banks, Grant Hill, Elton Brand and Carlos Boozer.

From Elias: The Kings rallied from a 17-point first-half deficit to beat the Raptors, 111-108. It's the second time this season that the Kings have won a game in which they trailed by more than 15 points, after winning only one game of that type over the previous two seasons.

MLB

GIANTS SHUT DOWN RANGERS OFFENSE

From Elias: The 2010 Giants are only the second team in the last 30 years to win three World Series games in which they held their opponent to one run or less. The other was the 1985 Royals, who rallied from a 3-1 deficit to beat the Cardinals in seven games, while limiting St. Louis to no more than one run in all four victories.

Texas, which led the major leagues with a .276 team batting average during the regular season, batted only .190 during the World Series. Among the 31 teams to play in the World Series after leading the majors in batting average that season, the only others that batted under .200 in the Fall Classic were the 1948 Indians (.199) and the 1995 Indians (.179).

The Rangers had an 18-inning scoreless streak spanning Game Three to Game Five, after their longest such drought during the regular season was 15 innings. From 1969 through 1972 three teams had longer scoring droughts in the World Series than they had during that entire regular season: the 1969 Orioles, 1971 Orioles and 1972 Athletics. But since 1973 the only other team to do that was the 2001 Yankees.

From Elias: Edgar Renteria, whose 11th-inning single won the 1997 World Series for the Marlins, is the first player with a game-winning RBI in the 7th inning or later in two World Series-clinching games.

From Elias: The Giants clinched the NLDS in Atlanta, the NLCS in Philadelphia and the World Series in Arlington. Since the current three-tiered postseason format was first played in 1995, only one other World Champion ended all three postseason series with road victories: the 2005 White Sox.

Road teams had a 19-13 (.594) record during the 2010 postseason, the highest winning percentage for visitors in the 16 years in which the current postseason format has been played.

From Elias: Giants batters did not draw a walk and produced only one extra-base hit (Edgar Renteria's three-run homer) in Game Five. The only other teams that combined for no more than one extra-base hit or walk in a World-Series clinching game were the 1926 Cardinals, who had none of each in a Game Seven win at Yankee Stadium, and the 1913 Athletics, who had one walk and no extra-base hits in a Game Five victory against the Giants at the Polo Grounds.

From Elias: The Giants won both of the Tim Lincecum vs. Cliff Lee matchups in the 2010 World Series, taking Game One in San Francisco and Game Five in Arlington. The last nine times that the same starting pitchers opposed each other for a second time in a World Series, the team that won the first meeting also won the second.

NHL

Hartnell

HARTNELL'S TWO GOALS ARE WINNING FORMULA

From Elias: Scott Hartnell scored a pair of goals, including the game-winner, in the Flyers' 3-2 victory against the Hurricanes. It was the 18th multiple-goal game in regular-season play in Hartnell's NHL career (10 with Nashville, 8 with Philadelphia) and his team has won every one of those games. Hartnell has only one multi-goal game in the playoffs, a two-goal performance in Game Six of the 2010 Stanley Cup Final, which the Flyers lost in overtime.

From Elias: Brandon Dubinsky scored two goals to lead the Rangers to a 3-2 win over the Blackhawks. Entering play on Monday, Dubinsky had not scored a goal in his last 22 games against Western Conference opponents, a drought dating back more than 21 months. His last goal against a team from the West was in a 3-2 Rangers win at Chicago on Jan. 16, 2009.